CSR and Customer Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Customer Engagement

• Main Authors: Moazzam Abbas, Yongqiang Gao, Sayyed Sadaqat Hussain Shah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-11-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: corporate social responsibility; customer engagement; customer loyalty; word-of-mouth; customer feedback
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/4243

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) image positively affects customer outcomes. Despite researchers’ interest in the investigation of company favoring outcomes still, there is a need to further examine the psychological mechanisms that generate these outcomes. Customer engagement (CE) is a state of mind that drives customer behavior. The role of CE has been fully ignored in CSR literature. We suggest that CSR engenders CE and examine the mediating role of CE between CSR and behavioral outcomes. A survey of 455 customers of banking services in Pakistan provided empirical evidence for hypothesis testing. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. We find that CSR image induces CE that gives rise to behavioral responses i.e., customer loyalty, word-of-mouth (WOM) and customer feedback. This is the first study to examine the impact of CSR on customer feedback and to investigate the mediating role of CE.